Glass Half Empty

Here I am in London, about to play Wembley Stadium for the first time. I had to explain myself yesterday, or at least explain how I came to be in Fleetwood Mac (the words seem to flow when the camera is on but lead to a mystery when the camera is gone.) I haven’t said much about it, have I? There are quite a few things I haven’t said much about.

But none of you seem to need much of an explanation. I salute you for that and truly appreciate that your interest is more focused on the deeper connection we have shared through songs and those precious communal gatherings, reaching back into our young lives, and now we are stretching our necks ahead with some feeling of kindred spirit and comfort into the uncertain future. The music works somehow to form a bridge. How much more do you need to know?

For instance, do you need to know that I can’t find my iPad tonight which I use for reading? (The Shape Of Ruins, FYI.) No, not really, but this has led me to write you a newsletter because it’s too early to sleep, too late to attend the theatre. There must be something left to offer a day that’s treated me well. So, I have now set the mood lighting in my hotel room (an option on my lighting panel by the bed), poured myself a wine, and I am pondering the meaning of a glass half full, a glass half empty. Which kind of person am I?

It occurs to me, seeing a glass as half empty is actually a positive view. You have already enjoyed the refreshing taste of cool water or the first rosy glow of a good wine, and it has played a part in some good cell division and neuron activity that may have led you on to create something, perhaps, or say something kind to your loved one. A half empty glass can make us remember and appreciate the gifts we have already been given.

Conversely, regarding the glass as half full means looking into the future with an expectancy that you will get to have another drink, but you may not; someone might clear your glass away, a fly might land in it. What say your optimistic future is suddenly dashed by a random event? A glass half full person thinks he has control over the second half of the glass… ha!

Optimists will happily leave a party with their glass half empty. It is the hopeless drunk who circles the room at the end of the night looking for leftovers who sees the same glass as half full.

Hooray, my glass is now full again… cheers

Neil